


GODDESS, ETERNAL

by snowborn



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Deities, Epistolary, F/F, Fluff, Poetry, Reincarnation, cottagecore lesbians!, good for them!, look i just wanted to write them being in love with each other ok, very gay!, very loose hades and persephone imagery?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowborn/pseuds/snowborn
Summary: our lifetime, in abundance.
Relationships: Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	GODDESS, ETERNAL

**Author's Note:**

> idk what i just wrote! i feel like the holy ghost just possessed my hands and cranked out this bad boy! 
> 
> enjoy all the loving!

_someone will remember us_

_i say_

_even in another time_

-excerpt from ‘if not, winter’ by sappho, trans. anne carson

  
  
  


⚘⚘⚘

**14 november**

lover, 

on this crisp morning i wake, and you are not here. the bed, still body-warm, suspends me in my dream-state, where everything is soft and dim. everything is blue. morning light peeks in through the window, spills over the desk and the armoire and casts the white of the duvet in even brighter light. i wake, and you are not here, but the room is cozy and smells of jam.

the candle at my bedside has been burning for some time. the wax drips down to the metal and hardens at the base, milky purple against brass. you have been awake for hours, it seems, but my day is only just beginning. our roles have reversed once again.

you are not in the bathroom, though the walls are wet with dew and the scent of cinnamon lingers, a welcome thickness in my lungs. you are not in the kitchen, though your favorite pot has been pushed to the back of the stove, full of cooling apple puree. you are not in the living room, though a fresh log has been put in the fireplace, embers crackling with new life. your flimsy nightgown, draped across the vanity. your breakfast plate, sitting empty on the table, beside an open book. you do this on purpose, i know, because you’d never break the spine like that otherwise.

like gretel you leave a trail of breadcrumbs, as though someday i will forget to find you. lover, i promise that i never will. 

even in this, the prelude to one of the cruelest of winters in recent memory, you are outside in your coat and fluffy hat, tending to the sprouting cabbages and leeks, swaying, dainty as you are, in the dry wind. your footprints, delicate in the snow, as if afraid of leaving too lasting a mark. 

we could spend an eternity here, untouched. that is all i wish for us. 

⚘⚘⚘

**21 november**

lover, 

today we went into town. it can be a bit overwhelming, to be around so many mortals after so long, but as always, we do what we must with the little we have. i could see the delight in your eyes as we spoke to the children gathering water from the well, as we plucked fresh fruit from the stalls. it has been a while, hasn’t it? bruised and crushed in our fingers, their juices flow ready as a stream. my fondest memories are of you, dancing with the fireflies, like ritual, a vision of mercy. you, plush lips and tongue stained bloodred with ripe pomegranate in the high summer, reminiscent of our first meeting -- pure wine spilling from your mouth and down the front of your shift, this world’s eager offering to me. 

summer is but a faraway dream, yet. the trees are stark, exposed to the world, and the winds grow chillier by the day. the little lady who owns the bakery has gifted us matching wool socks for the winter. said, _it will be a hard one, this year,_ with her kind smile, birds’ feet lifting as if in flight. 

there is not much to say about today, except: 

would it be so bad, to be like this forever? human? connected?

⚘⚘⚘

**28 november**

lover,

when i am lucky -- which is every moment spent loving you -- but especially so during mornings when i wake before you, i am content to watch you sleep. the soft petal-bloom of your lips as you breathe. the feather-light fluttering of your lashes as you dream. awash with pink, in the first rosy reaches of dawn.

always, and easily, deified by pale sunlight. 

⚘⚘⚘

**05 december**

lover,

it is sprinkling today. i know, because you rolled out of bed and said, _kiyo, i can hear the rain!_ and left to go put on your rain boots. it stops me in my tracks every time. you haven’t always called me that, but you have always loved the rain. i have a million and one memories of you twirling in the mist, from lifetimes far and between. in every one, you, smiling, marigold hair plastered to your forehead like tendrils from the deep.

(in another life, perhaps -- you, a water nymph, and i, the unwitting traveller.)

i have long preferred to stay dry. but you take my hand and lead me out from beneath our leak-proof awning, and we spin and spin and spin until the world grows hazy, until our fingers grow numb with cold. i tip over into the bog and dig my toes into the mud; you continue to dance, as though the wind and the rain and the sky were made for this. made for you. and when you spread your arms to the grey of the universe, the world breathes new life into you.

⚘⚘⚘

**19 december**

lover,

when you believe me to be otherwise occupied, i can see the glaze of your eyes from the corner of mine. my eyesight may be lacking, but this i can tell without even seeing you -- you are afraid. it's okay.

i am afraid, too. we do well to keep it contained within our little paradise-house, reluctant to cause the neighbors any trouble. one day they will stumble upon this house, full of apple jam, readily stocked with firewood and books and secrets, and they will have questions for which no answers exist. they, as history will attest to, are a mere afterthought in the dealings of the gods. we don’t have much time left in this thread before we are once again adrift from each other, two elusive boats destined for loneliness. but lover, please remember as i do, the vows we have made across eternities --

for as long as i am here, i am searching for you, and i will not stop until i’ve found you. for as long as you are here, you are searching for me, and you will not stop until you’ve found me. 

through the fear sparks a joyous epiphany, one i am happy to relearn --

you and i. a homecoming, for the ages. 

⚘⚘⚘

 **26 december**

lover, 

when i sleep, i dream of you. blood red skies and wing-tipped spears, chariots of fire and smoke in the air. the clink of armor, the softness of skin. spirits to herald the doom.

it is not always so dire. sometimes, in my most pleasant dreams, we are twined in a bed just like this one, unstripped of pretense for each other. i trade you full grapes for soft kisses; i feel the warm press of your hand in mine. all of my worries melt away like snow in the last dregs of winter. and when i wake, i am comforted by the warmth of our cocoon, and you, my prettiest, nestled in my arms. 

but in other times i lose you, our fingertips brushing like a broken promise before we are ripped apart. those times, i jolt awake in fear that i’ve lost you once again, that this life is forsaken, that i must travel a million more miles to find you. but i turn and find that you are beside me, lost to nothing and no one but peaceful slumber. 

i would travel those million miles over and over if it meant i could have you like this. i have been doing it since we were birthed into being, fully formed, hand in hand. lover, there is nothing i would not do for you.

⚘⚘⚘

**05 january**

lover, 

i cradle your birdbones in my hands, pull the honey from your lips. in the space between twilight and evening i rest my lashes on your cheek and whisper love in your ear. in another life, perhaps -- i, the poet, and you, the muse, and i would wax poetic about the gold of your hair and the warmth of your eyes, your porcelain skin, your rose-kissed cheeks. 

as it stands we are both mortal, and words come difficult, sometimes, from my leaden tongue. but i look upon you and recall divinity, known one hundred times over, and all i can think of is this --

whether in the crispness of autumn or the harshness of winter, in the freshness of spring or the full-blooms of summer, here we are, the two of us, an exercise in perseverance. with water-fresh skin and kiss-touched fingertips we paint this house into a home, our paradise in the grass. lover, we have come a long way.

⚘⚘⚘

 **23 january**

lover, 

i think of you gliding across the lake like a sprite, undeterred by the unforgiving winter. i think of how you mold to what is desired of you -- made for winter, made for spring. i think of you sitting beneath the weeping willow, thumbing through a book with pages so brittle you’d think they’d crumble at the touch. but you -- you and your tenderness. lover, you were made with care. you were made for the sunshine.

in the snowmelt and in the frost, we learn -- i, a mirror for you; you, a mirror for me. reflecting light and hope and desire. keeping each other known. 

⚘⚘⚘

**09 february**

lover,

we have been together for so long that every little fact about you lives in its own corner of my heart. even across the ages i have learned so much about you, your likes and your distastes, the way each life changes you. an example: this morning you woke up craving a citrus tart, which you have despised for as long as i can remember. something about four boys and a barrel of orange juice. i have never been the best baker -- i have always had you, for that -- but i got out of bed and baked it for you, neatly layered with slices of blood orange and grapefruit and lemon-lime.

i know that loving me is an exercise in patience, but you have never needed the practice. we take the bitter and the salt and tang and end up with happiness, in spades. 

⚘⚘⚘

**27 february**

hitoka, 

today, the snow is melting. soon, the first blooms. i long for the day when i can stand on the porch and watch you come over the hill, wading through the tall grass like a water maiden coming ashore, crowned with sprigs of baby’s breath. your arms, full of tulips and lilies and lupines -- my arms, ready to hold you. 

this day, we know, comes every year, but it is the million moments in between waking and sleeping that spur me to action. it is only then, after we suck honey from each other’s mouths and bid winter farewell, that we are ready to greet the spring anew.

i think, i know -- i love you forever.

kiyoko

⚘⚘⚘

 **27 february**

kiyoko,

did you know that you twitch when you sleep? you’re having a most enjoyable dream, i can tell, because your lips have curled up into the softest little smile, your most honest and most unguarded gesture of love. as you say, what is love without trust? i respond, without fail, _nothing_.

in the drawer of the table at your bedside, hidden beneath a plush wool scarf and extra candlesticks, you keep a leatherbound journal. i gifted it to you some time ago, between the first and third lives we lived here on earth. it has kept up surprisingly well over the centuries, no rips or tears to be found. you weren’t much for writing back then, but it seems that even old dogs can learn new tricks! (the little boy at the butcher’s taught me that. he has so many cute sayings.) it’s something i love about you, you know -- that even after all this time, your heart still finds ways to be touched by the world, so much so that you tuck them away like a collection of secrets privy to only your careful eye.

speaking of secrets, may i share one with you? i think this is my favorite lifetime with you, yet. perhaps i’ve shared that sentiment with you before. it doesn’t make it any less true. 

the blue hour is rapidly approaching. i can see you stirring from your rest. perhaps you’ll loop your arms around me and press me to your breast, sleep-warm and vanilla-sweet. perhaps we’ll wander outside to kiss under the holy moonlight. all this to say --

we have lived a million moments together, and i would gladly live a million more with you, my venus, in bloom. this one is ours for the taking. 

all my love,

hitoka.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> anyway i fell down a poetry sinkhole and all i got was this 2k mess <3 
> 
> let me know if u liked it or hated it. or if u feel ambivalent. always open to talking xoxo


End file.
